Been Conned! or mislead

No matter what NTL has done, whether you have had the service installed or not, if a salesman came uninvited to your door and you signed something there and then, you are legally entitled to take advantage of your 'cooling off' period, which is seven days. Admittedly it is highly uinlikely that they will get your service installed within 7 days of you ordering it, but if they did, you still have the right to cancel your 12-month contract with NTL. However, you might find that you remain liable for the cost of the actual install itself.

Useful info and FAQs from the Consumer Protection Regulations 1987 and 1998 are here: http://www.dti.gov.uk/ccp/topics1/facts/doorstep.htm

Originally Posted by simpsonsFAN

You dident say witch ntl service you ordered, but all of them need a telephone line anyway!, and all of them come included in the price, eg you carnt get ntl tv without teleco.

I doubt you have been conned so dont worry about it.

-Chris

Dodgy advice Chris. Did you find this out on a different, less trustworthy NTL-orientated site? You don't get compelled to take any other NTL service bundled if you subscribe to Broadband.

[david_w2k]

Originally Posted by Scooby

From what i understand the issue was they thought they were getting a trial that they could use then stop the product after that, when infact it is 60 days free tied into a contract. A subtile difference

Yeah thats right. I have send off the cancellation slip on the form in the post already, is this enough to cancel it?

EDITED^

[Graham F]

Originally Posted by david_w2k

Yeah thats right. I have send off the cancellation slip on the form in the post already, this is enough to cancel it?

yes...but like i said you can cancel on doorstep if needs be, don't worry abt relax and enjoy your first few weeks of uni

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by punky

And also, there is a 14 day cooling off period with every contract, so regardless if it has been installed or not, if it has been less than 14 days til signing, you can call up and cancel.

Exactly! So don't worry about it david_w2k

[david_w2k]

Ok will do guys Having a great time Just wanted that little worry out the way!

Thanks again, been a great help (as usual!)

[bob_builder]

Originally Posted by zoombini

I have just had BB installed, CM only and I (AFAIK) have it free for 60 days.

I do not have the phone installed, there was no mention of phone access.

I cannot find any mention of the 60-day trial (possibly because it is ending tomorrow) on the internet. But it definately said on the flier I read last night at home that the 60-day trial was not applicable to people who only have broadband. You may still get it free for 60-days, however.

[Motorman]

Hang on am I missing somthing here
What exactly did the salesman do wrong?

He led you through the best offer available
and
Sorted out all the paperwork and made sure the deal goes through in an orderly fashion


These guys are out in all weathers getting new business for the company.
I'm told sometimes the job isnt too pleasant, meeting Old Customers.

Lets give credit where credit is due. YOu might not have liked him, but he didnt do you any harm

[Motorman]

Originally Posted by Scooby

From what i understand the issue was they thought they were getting a trial that they could use then stop the product after that, when infact it is 60 days free tied into a contract. A subtile difference

No mate.
It is a free trial for 60 days.
If the customer cancels on day 59, the service will stop and nothing will be owed.
If there is no cancellation, then the contract will start, and will be for a further 10 months. ( 12 months less 2 already taken).

[Scarlett]

Originally Posted by Motorman

Hang on am I missing somthing here
What exactly did the salesman do wrong?

Have a look at the original post...

Originally Posted by david_w2k

He lead us to believe that if we signed the application we would get a free trial and could change our minds at any time before installation and during the trial period. We thought this was fair enough, never planning on keeping the service becuase we are poor.

Anyway i stupidly signed it while he was blasting our ears with crap. Streight afterwards we looked at it and he has sneekily ticked the 123 phone package and given us (ME! under my name!) a 12 MONTH contract I KNOW I KNOW i was stupid for signing but he told us we were not getting the phone. The problem i am now worried about is the we don't own the line, it is owned my the uni and only takes incoming calls. Does this now mean NTL can just take this line? If so im in trouble

He sold them something that was unsiutable for them (12 month contract for a student rather then 9 month)
Gave them a phone line that, although it was required for the offer, was not expected. From the post looks like this was NEVER made clear.
He told them that the afore mentioned phone line WOULD NOT BE FITTED despite the fact that it was required for the offer.
Also this was put under david_w2k's name which from the post it appears was also not made clear by the salesman.

This is precisly the sort of sales tatic which companies get fined for.

[Motorman]

Originally Posted by Scarlett

Have a look at the original post...



He sold them something that was unsiutable for them (12 month contract for a student rather then 9 month)
Gave them a phone line that, although it was required for the offer, was not expected. From the post looks like this was NEVER made clear.
He told them that the afore mentioned phone line WOULD NOT BE FITTED despite the fact that it was required for the offer.
Also this was put under david_w2k's name which from the post it appears was also not made clear by the salesman.

This is precisly the sort of sales tatic which companies get fined for.

Thanks for your reply.
All student contracts are over 9 months.
All contracts are printed with a default 12 months.
Also I dont know what the complaint is as the phone line is included in the price, which means it is free. IF the salesman ticked the box is that really a bad thing?
its a bit like ordering health insurance and ticking the box which says 'would you like to recieve your free gift'? My guess is that it gets ticked anyway, because the salesman is honest as the day is long and just wants the customer to get the best deal.

[Bifta]

Originally Posted by Motorman

because the salesman is honest as the day is long and just wants the customer to get the best deal.

Originally Posted by Motorman

Also I dont know what the complaint is as the phone line is included in the price, which means it is free.

Oh why, oh why, oh why am I still reading this complete untruth about NTL's 'free' telephone line? NTL gave up that pretence a long time ago when they realised just how uncompetitive it makes their basic DTV package look when compared to $ky.

You need look no further than here for the truth:

http://www.home.ntl.com/icat/television

But to save you looking, here is the crunch sentence, in unhelpful grey text at the bottom of the page:

Price is exclusive of £9.50 telephone line rental which must be purchased with your TV package

So, NTL's basic DTV package is, supposedly, £10 - but you can't actually get it for £10, because you have to *purchase* - i.e. pay money for - a telephone line in addition. The family pack is, supposedly, £19.50 - but you can't actually get it for £19.50 because you have to *purchase* a telephone line in addition. A telephone line which, incidentally, might be a pound cheaper than BT's but comes with no calls bundled for that basic price and an extremely limited ability to access cheaper, third-party service providers.

The tragedy here is that NTL's basic TV package, once denuded of the phone line, is actually better value than $ky. You get more channels than the most basic $ky pack and it's £3.50 cheaper than the basic $ky pack.

I'm not about to get into a lengthy comparison of all ntl and $ky's equivalent packages - suffice it to say that I think NTL's worst enemy in this regard is the NTL marketing department.

[Dave Stones]

slightly off-topic, but a similar thing seems to happen around here with telewest. there are always TW salesmen calling round trying to sell us their services, we here have had three separate ones calling... they seemed to get confused when i got our contract out and showed it them...

it is definitely very high-pressure though, and they are very smooth-talking...

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Dave Stones

slightly off-topic, but a similar thing seems to happen around here with telewest. there are always TW salesmen calling round trying to sell us their services, we here have had three separate ones calling... they seemed to get confused when i got our contract out and showed it them...

it is definitely very high-pressure though, and they are very smooth-talking...

It's a salesmans job to get you to sign on the dotted the line.

Quite frankly you are a fool to sign for anything there and then.

I have have had Npower, ntl, telewest, and other salesman cold call to my door many times and I do the same every time.

I let them go through their patter, then I say thankyou, but I'd like to think about it a bit more and ask them to leave all the paperwork and to come back tomorrow. I then read it at depth in peace without some guy in a blazer with shiny buttons, wearing questionalble afershave looking over my shoulder.

Sometimes they try, "you have to sign now to take advantage of this offer" in that case just say no thanks.

If he wants the sale, he'll come back and then I'll have some questions for him after thoroughly reading the documents.